EMC Quietly Picks Up Allocity

Keeping its pledge to expand its portfolio for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), EMC recently acquired Allocity, a software start-up that provides back-up, restore and provisioning for Microsoft Exchange systems.

EMC spokesman Dave Farmer confirmed that the Hopkinton, Mass., information systems provider quietly picked up Allocity last month, but declined to name a purchase price for the Mountain View, Calif., concern.

Allocity makes Live!Ex, a self-managing, self-protecting storage subsystem designed to provide backup and restore, storage management, storage capacity planning and provisioning for Microsoft Exchange databases.

Live!Ex adds unique value at a time when some companies are moving to storage area networks to improve the efficiency and utilization of storage. Because the glut of e-mail is the fastest-growing consumer of storage in most businesses, it makes sense for e-mail to benefit from the efficiencies of the SAN.

While SMBs have generally been wary of embracing SANs due to cost and the complexity of building them, Live!Ex helps Exchange users manage more mailboxes, a tricky problem since Exchange wasn’t built to handle distributed storage.

Allocity is an EMC partner and makes a version of Live!Ex that integrates with CLARiiON CX hardware platforms and EMC software called Live!Ex/CX.

Farmer said it will be business as usual for Allocity. “We’ll continue to support current Allocity customers and expect to incorporate the Allocity technology into future product offerings for the commercial and SMB markets.”

For EMC, the purchase is the next in line after its acquisition of back-up and recovery start-up Dantz Development Corp., another software specialist that creates products for the SMB market.

Though once holding a laser-like focus for the medium- to large-sized enterprises, EMC has turned its attention toward the SMB space of late, recognizing the growth potential for the market. IBM, HP and other storage vendors have been targeting SMBs, as well.

Allocity’s assets and staff, which Farmer said numbers fewer than 30 people, will be integrated into EMC’s engineering and sales organizations.

Article courtesy of InternetNews.com